Other Voices

How Poland Saved Itself

While other European economies shrank, the Eastern European nation's grew. The fundamental difference: less risk.

As the world now knows, excessive risk and opaque financial instruments are dangerous. Their misuse substantially damaged the global economy. Would less financial risk have reduced the likelihood and intensity of the damage? The unique experiment conducted in Poland suggests this is so.

In 2009, Poland was the only European Union nation to see gross-domestic-product growth. Polish growth was 1.7% Every other EU member experienced...